Theological Reflections Papers

﻿Cassie Carter
TH 150-Introduction to Theology
Lesson 5 Graded Assignment
Theological Topic Reflection Paper: The Shawshank Redemption After watching The Shawshank Redemption I still had a bit of trouble understanding the movie. So I also chose to read the book to give me a better comprehension of the movie as the book gives more of the hidden details that the movie lacks. The movie is about a banker named Andy Dufresne who was accused of double murder in the 1940s and began a life sentence at the fictional Shawshank prison. There he's befriended by an older inmate named Red. During his long stay in prison, Andy comes to be admired by the other inmates for his upstanding moral code and his quietly unbeatable spirit. This movie contains many themes but there are three major themes I want to reflect on. The first theme in the movie is hope. Hope is the feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen. Hope, more than anything else, drives the inmates at Shawshank prison and gives them the will to live. Andy’s sheer determination to maintain his own sense of self-worth and escape keeps him from dying of frustration and anger in solitary confinement. Hope is an abstract, passive emotion, similar to the passive, immobile, and inert lives of the prisoners. Andy sets about making hope a reality in the form of the agonizing progress he makes each year tunneling his way through his concrete cell wall to escape. Even Andy’s even-keeled and well-balanced temperament, however, eventually succumb to the bleakness of prison life. Red notes that Tommy William’s revelation that he could prove Andy’s innocence was like a key unlocking a cage in Andy’s mind, a cage that released a tiger called Hope. This hope reinvigorates Andy and spreads too many of the other inmates in the prison. Red, for example, identified Andy as the part of himself who never let go of the idea of freedom. Red seemed frightened at the idea of freedom. He dreamt of being paroled but...

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...﻿ReflectionPaper
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At the beginning of the semester, I was not looking forward to this course the most. This is because I knew there will be group discussion with my classmates whom I am not familiar with. In addition, I need to give a speech in front of my classmates which made me worried and nervous since those are my weakness.
However, after attending the lectures and tutorials for a few weeks, I started to gain interest in this course as I learnt a lot of new things. For example, I am now more capable and confident when it comes to writing a proper academic report, drafting appropriate business replies or even analyze a blog. With these knowledge, I know that I will be doing much better in my future. Despite having to worry about being appointed by my tutor to answer questions, I had funs there. My classmates and I shared, communicated and learnt there!
There was once when my group and I were tasked to analyze a piece of academic writing. I was glad because I found the skills taught during lessons highly applicable and useful. For example fallacies including red herring, hasty generalization, post hoc etc. Besides that, we were able to learn how to communicate with each other during discussions. I was delighted by my group mates as we were able to establish good rapport. Now, my group mates are good friends to me as well.
Another obvious change in myself is I...

...Reflection
I. Introduction
This course has proposed many thought-provoking questions for me personally. Many of the principles that I have learned have allowed me to answer questions that I was not able to answer prior. It has given me a clearer understanding of what it means to be a Christian and the foundation that it is built upon. Now when someone asks “Does the Bible have authority?”, “Why are personal testimonies important in sharing the gospel?”, or “If a person is a Christian, does it matter how they live their life?”, I can give an answer with confidence. I will focus on these three questions in my reflection.
II. Does the Bible have Authority?
The bible may be the most criticized and most attacked book that has ever been written.
There are many who work to discredit or disprove the authority of the bible. There are numerous books that claim to be the Word of God, the Book of Mormon, the Koran, the Bhagavad Gita just to name a few. It is very probable that how each person views the bible is a direct result of socialization, myself being an example. During my childhood, the bible was the only book of religion in my parent’s home. Why does the bible have authority? To answer, I may have simply stated “because it does”, of course this answer doesn’t suffice, people need details.
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Predestination is a Calvinist doctrine, which governs the degree of control which God exercises over the affairs of human beings, and, indeed, all things that occur on Earth. Calvinist predestination insists that God basically has determined all things which have occurred, and will occur. A second meaning is also accorded to predestination by Calvinists. ‘Predestination,’ in this sense, refers to the notion that God gave to some grace, which grants them eternal salvation, while to the remainder is allotted eternal damnation, owing to their sins. The former state is referred to as ‘unconditional election,’ while the latter unfortunates suffer from what is termed ‘reprobation.’
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Language is basically a tool, a means to express ideas and to communicate these, but before being a tool, language is first a reflection of one’s objective reality. Language is a symbol that represents the material objects in one’s environment. If an object does not exist in one’s material universe, one would have no word for it. For example, a person in search of gold in a certain area might show the natives a gold piece and ask what the natives call that metal and where he could find it. If there is no word for gold among the natives, it either means there is no gold in the area or the natives have not seen or heard of that metal before. When Rizal wrote the famous lines “Ang hindi nagmamahal sa sariling wika ay masahol pa sa malansang isda”, he was not referring to language merely as a communication tool but as an expression of one’s...

...﻿ReflectionPaper
North of Manila, the island of Luzon tempted me with some wonderful mountainous areas, volcanic landscapes and a beautiful coastline dotted with heavenly beaches. Heading up the west coast from Subic, the Zambales coast amazed me being dotted with laidback resorts, while the Hundred Islands , as they say, a favourite weekend trip from Manila, gave me an idea on what to visit this summer. As I remember, further along the coast, the province of La Union draws visitors particularly for its surfing. North of here is Ilocos Sur, known primarily for the old colonial city of Vigan, where horse-drawn carriages bounce down narrow cobblestone streets. This scenario made me go back to the ancient times. As I was able to remember, the area around the capital of Ilocos Norte province, Laoag, features a number of sites related to former dictator Ferdinand Marcos, who was born in the nearby village of Sarrat. Another spot was Palanan – the jump-off point for the barely explored Northern Sierra Madre Natural Park. For many visitors, though, the prime attraction in Northern Luzon is the mountainous inland Cordillera region. Highlights here include the mountain village of Sagada with its caves and hanging coffins, and the stunning rice terraces around Banaue and Bontoc. In the village of Kabayan in Benguet province, it’s possible to hike up to see mummies, discovered in caves in the early twentieth century. Kabayan also provides access to...

...﻿SOC-20-290C WEDNESDAY CLASS
REFLECTIONPAPER#1
According to Wikipedia, the American dream is defined as a national ethos of the United States of America, a set of ideals in which freedom includes opportunity for prosperity and success and an upward mobility achieved through hard work. Individual perspectives and definitions of the American dream differ. Most see it as home ownership others especially the immigrants see it an opportunity they never had in their home countries at prosperity. I personally would define the American dream as an opportunity that is available as a resource or anyone regardless of social or political status to achieve and make an upward mobility in the search for economical, social and political goals.
The American dream is much older than the United States, the great immigration to the Americas begun in the 1820’s. The European immigrants came seeking jobs, as families fleeing religious persecution, farmers looking for land and a fresh start. It was no coincidence that the European immigration, American industrialization and rise to prominence occurred simultaneously. By World War I, 25% of the labor force was foreign born. A massive shift in immigration was brought about by the industrialization that caused a great change in traditional agricultural practices in Europe.
The American Dream is rooted in the United States declaration of...

...have seen all around the country, especially in my hometown. It seems that as politicians get elected, their way of helping a barangay was in providing it with a covered court that has the words “sponsored by (insert congressman’s name here)“ written on it. If this is where all the government funds go, then I see why they were in such a state. This was one reality that bothered me. This could be traced back to all the broken promises of politicians and men of authorities, and how words are not transformed into action. I personally have seen a lot of times where certain linguistic manipulation or misrepresentation is used to people’s advantage, whether it is in platforms of many officials or in as something as simple as a student cramming a paper for petty reasons. Though they seem different in magnitude or degree of commission, both are inevitably the same. What is common with the two is that they both lead to the evasion of real and achievable solution. Instead of politicians avoiding the issue of poverty using flowery and misleading details, why not do something that’s transparent to the public? I’m not just talking about covered courts; I’m talking about achievable and sustainable methods for improving the neighborhoods. What really strikes me with this issue is that this matter of social and economic welfare is such a big deal to those people living on and below the poverty line than those well-off families who are not quite as shaken as the poor and the...